A case study of air enrichment in rotary kiln incineration

This paper presents a case study of air enrichment in an industrial rotary kiln type incineration unit. The study is based on mass and energy balances, considering the combustion reaction of a mixture composed by the residue and the auxiliary fuel with air enriched with oxygen. The steps are shown for the primary chamber (rotary kiln) and secondary chamber (afterburner). The residence times in the primary and secondary chamber are 2.0 and 3.2 sec, respectively. The pressure is atmospheric in both chambers. Based on constant chamber gas residence time and gas temperature, it is shown that the residue input rates can be increased by one order of magnitude as air is substituted by pure oxygen. As the residue consumption rate in the rotary kiln is also dependent on residue physical characteristics (mainly size), the study was also carried out for different percentages of oxygen in the oxidiser gas. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd.